1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an ink-jet printing apparatus and a printing method. More specifically, the invention relates to an ink-jet printing apparatus and a printing method, in which a liquid for making a coloring material in an ink on a printing medium insoluble before or after formation of printing dots on the printing medium by ejecting the ink from a printing head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, upon printing on a printing medium, such as a plain paper by an ink-jet printing system, it is possible to degrade a quality of a printed image due to influence of bluing of ink or so forth. On the other hand, due to insufficiency of water resistance, durability of the printed image can be low.
As a solution for such problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 58-128862 discloses a technology for forming liquid dots (hereinafter referred to as processing liquid dots) by ejecting a liquid (hereinafter referred to as a processing liquid) having an effect for suitably fixing a printing ink before or after ejection of the printing ink and thus overlaying the processing liquid dots and printing dots. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 64-63185 discloses a technology for forming printing dots on a printing medium by ejecting the printing ink after depositing a compound which makes the dye in the ink insoluble. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-202328 discloses the following three printing methods. The first method performs deposition of a processing liquid for suitably fixing and providing water resistance for the printing ink by an ink-jet system, in advance of an operation for forming printing dots on the printing medium. The second method is a method for depositing a liquid (hereinafter referred to as a processing liquid) on the printing medium by roller application. The third method is a method for improving water resistance and fixing ability of the printing ink by depositing the printing medium by mixing the printing ink and the processing liquid during flying from an ejecting head.
In the prior art set forth above, the processing liquid is deposited for all of the printing dot forming positions on the printing medium, it may consume unnecessarily large amount of the processing liquid. Particularly, in case of color printing using a plurality of colors, admixing of colors due to excessive amount of the processing liquid can be caused.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet printing apparatus and a printing method, which can deposit appropriate amount of a liquid at optimum positions on a printing medium, obtain maximum performance of the liquid, and easily generate a driving data for ejecting the liquid.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet printing apparatus using a printing head which can eject an ink and a liquid ejecting head which can eject a liquid acting to make a coloring material in the ink insoluble or coagulating the same, for forming a printing dot on a printing medium by the ink ejected from the printing head and forming a liquid dot on the printing medium by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting head, comprising:
converting means for converting a relatively low resolution printing data into a printing data having a resolution higher than that of the data;
first control means for effecting ejection of the ink from the printing head on the basis of the converted high resolution printing data;
driving data generating means for generating a driving data for the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the high resolution printing data; and
second control means for effecting ejection of the liquid from the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the driving data.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet printing apparatus using a printing head which can eject an ink and a liquid ejecting head which can eject a liquid acting to make a coloring material in the ink insoluble or coagulating the same, for forming a printing dot on a printing medium by the ink ejected from the printing head and forming a liquid dot on the printing medium by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting head, comprising:
first converting means for converting a relatively low resolution printing data into a printing data having a resolution higher than that of the data;
first control means for effecting ejection of the ink from the printing head on the basis of the converted high resolution printing data;
second converting means for converting the low resolution printing data into a driving data for the liquid ejecting head; and
second control means for effecting ejection of the liquid from the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the driving data.
In a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet printing method using a printing head which can eject an ink and a liquid ejecting head which can eject a liquid acting to make a coloring material in the ink insoluble or coagulating the same, for forming a printing dot on a printing medium by the ink ejected from the printing head and forming a liquid dot on the printing medium by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting head, comprising the steps of:
converting a relatively low resolution printing data into a printing data having a resolution higher than that of the data;
effecting ejection of the ink from the printing head on the basis of the converted high resolution printing data;
generating a driving data for the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the high resolution printing data; and
effecting ejection of the liquid from the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the driving data.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet printing method using a printing head which can eject an ink and a liquid ejecting head which can eject a liquid acting to make a coloring material in the ink insoluble or coagulating the same, for forming a printing dot on a printing medium by the ink ejected from the printing head and forming a liquid dot on the printing medium by the liquid ejected from the liquid ejecting head, comprising the steps of:
converting a relatively low resolution printing data into a printing data having a resolution higher than that of the data;
effecting ejection of the ink from the printing head on the basis of the converted high resolution printing data;
converting the low resolution printing data into a driving data for the liquid ejecting head; and
effecting ejection of the liquid from the liquid ejecting head on the basis of the driving data.
The present invention generates the driving data for ejecting the liquid for improving fixing ability and water resistance of the ink on the basis of low resolution printing data or high resolution printing data. Then, by ejecting the liquid on the basis of the driving data, maximum performance of the liquid can be obtained. Furthermore, the driving data for ejecting the liquid can be easily obtained.
Further, the present invention generates the driving data for ejecting the liquid on the basis of low resolution printing data, reducing a processing time for generating the driving data, coping with a case where the number of ejection openings is increased.